DIY (VC) Fund Raising

In reply of the many that reached out asking similar (and valid) questions following the article in De Tijd on 13 October 2023. Below your main questions answered.

LOUD SHOUT OUT to the Unbox team and especially Lotte Van Dijck , Joeri Torfs , James Angle , William Arthey , Harry Geisler and many other Unboxians!?

(1) What are the tips and tricks you can share for?raising an up round in a market under pressure?

The answer is simple: there are a FEW tips (see below) but NO tricks (at least not when you want the kind of investors we at Unbox want on our cap table).

• VOLUME MATTERS, SELECTION TOO: we listed 3,000 targets, reached out to 2,000, spoke to over 100, closed 1
• THE WORLD IS YOUR PLAYGROUND: we met online and offline, day and night, across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and America
• THERE ARE NO BEST PRACTICES: there is just an honest story, a solid idea, tangible traction, a strong plan with straight numbers, and a people fit
• THERE IS A LOT OF BS IN VC: I have seen more BS in 1 year VC than in 25 years of marketing
• WATCH OUT FOR “LAUNDROMAT” INVESTORS: I have witnessed firsthand how some VCs are “laundromats” - unclean funds (unclear source of funds, fiscal, criminal…) are mixed with clean funds and cleaned through VC investments, similar to real estate
• GO FOR A CAP TABLE WITH THE 'C' OF CLEAN: fill your investor seats and your cap tables only with clean money
• WHEN IN DOUBT, WALK AWAY: we walked away from a BIG cheque after digging deep into the VC fund, and more importantly their LPs
• PICK VALUE OVER VALUATION: pick investors that add value, not valuation, that comes later

(2) Who managed your process, and how was it?

Who managed it? We managed it ourselves. Yes, you can do that yourself! You’re an entrepreneur remember.

How was it? It was long and painful.

• LONG: multiple months process
• PAINFUL: very heavy due diligence: ESG, ABC, legal, technology, market…
• VERY INSIGHTFUL, INSTRUCTIVE AND INFORMATIVE: we all gained an MBA in VC we tend to believe ??
• ...AND NOT FINISHED YET: a lot of post-closings to do

I sincerely hope that you can ALL benefit from these experiences and get successful! Please do NOT email or message me anymore on this subject… except if you want to invest in the second part of the closing ??

DISCLAIMER! The best advice I ever received goes as follows: If you give advice make sure you include a disclaimer that says the 5' advice you give to that person could potentially determine the rest of his life or the future of his business. That always puts any form of advice into perspective. And that is also how I analyse the advice that people give me. I call that conscious listening.

THANK YOU for your interest and sorry I cannot answer each of your +600 messages.